FIA EPTA welcomes the opportunity to respond to the European Commission’s consultation on permanently lowering the relevant threshold for the notification of significant net short positions in shares. Short selling plays an important role in ensuring the proper functioning of financial markets in terms of liquidity and efficiency of price formation. It enables investors to manage risk and marketmakers to facilitate risk transfer for others by hedging their positions through buying and selling shares. It is thus important that transparency requirements are well-calibrated, easy to implement and do not unduly detract from the benefits that short selling provides to the EU capital markets.